Nuclear fusion by inertial confinement, Inertial Confinement Fusion (“ICF”), utilizes nuclear fusion reactions to produce energy. In most types of ICF systems, an external drive mechanism, such as a laser, delivers energy to a target containing nuclear fusion fuel. The target is designed to use this energy to compress, heat and ignite the fusion fuel within the target. If a sufficient amount of fuel is compressed sufficiently and heated sufficiently, a self-sustaining fusion reaction can occur in which energy produced by fusion reactions continues to heat the fuel. This is generally referred to as “ignition.” The inertia of the compressed fuel can keep it from expanding long enough for significant energy to be produced before expansion of the fuel and the resultant cooling terminates the fusion reaction.
ICF targets release energy in the form of high-velocity subatomic particles (ions and neutrons), x-ray radiation, and kinetic energy of the expanding debris field. The target is ignited inside a vacuum chamber, which is responsible for safely containing the energy output of the target, and potentially converting it into useful form (for example, steam). In general, the required size of the containment chamber increases with the energy output of the target. High-performance targets, involving high gains and/or large output energies, may require very large containment chambers.